OCEANEARS CLUB 3-4 yr olds

[magic cruiser]

I am concerned about the recent reports about the 3-4 yr old age group. Is it really that chaotic ? Is the staff ratio that bad? We had a great experience last time with the 7 yr old group, but this time our 4 yr old Granddaughter will be with us and I hope we won't be disappointed.

 

[yodasdabomb]

From what I was told during my interview process the ration for the 3-4s is 1-15 ( if I remember right) If one ages group is more crowed or exceeds the number then they pull counselors from an area that is less busy. I do know that the 3-4s and 5-7 have the lowest child to counselor ratio and it increases as the age groups increase (ie 1-25 for the 8-9). That is about as much as I know at this point. I know that it is not much help. The good news is the CM_Mom should be back from her Magical trip in a few days and her daughter works in the Oceaneer club and Lab so she maybe able to fill you in!

 

[crisi]

Our daughter had a great time and we didn't think it chaotic at all. But it probably depends on the child. My daughter is in daycare - so she is used to a 1 - 12 staff/kid ratio and used to the chaoticness of fifteen or twenty preschoolers in a room.

It probably also depends on the other kids in the space. If they have fifteen kids per counselor and two are very misbehaved, five haven't been away from Mom with a stranger before, and a third isn't really potty trained, the experience is going to be very different than fifteen well behaved (for preschoolers), potty trained kids not having seperation issues.

I went in a few times to pick up my daughter and found a thirty 3-4 year olds engaged in a story or game in what I thought was a very organized manner. Dealing with that many preschoolers is a little like herding cats - the expectations for group time can't be too high.

 

[lbgraves]

When we were on the 11/15 Eastern our just turned 5 yo DS loved the club. He was in the 3-5 group so that they would be together. I went with him & 3 yo DD during one of the activities on Monday & found it to be very well run and organized. My 3 yo just wasn't ready to be away from mom very much so we enjoyed spending lots of quality time with her at the pool while DS was in the club. The first night was very busy because there were alot of people still signing their kids up & getting wrist bands. I took DS down during early seating. All of the other nights signing him in only took a couple minutes and then I was able to return to our table before the main course arrived. He is very outgoing and has been in preschool for 3 years.

I didn't plan on DD staying in the club so I wasn't disappointed about not having adult time on the cruise. Like other people have posted, we booked with Disney for the kids & I enjoyed watching her enjoying every aspect of the experience. They have been talking about the club ever since we rebooked in December. DD says that she wants to go to the club & play. She is coming out of her shell more so she may be ready for it by December. We are just hoping to go to brunch at Palo this time but if she doesn't like it, we wont force the issue.

 

[jrydberg]

In my experience (5/1 Eastern cruise) the first night and following morning are going to be a bit on the chaotic side for the kids' club. My daughter is 5 and very shy. I just waited til Monday evening to even try dropping her off and everything had calmed down by then. If I had brought her to the club earlier, she probably would've been more reluctant to go back.

 

[aprilgail2]

Right this moment my daughter is in the Oceaners club and she loves it! The first night was a zoo but it has not been so bad the rest of the weeek. There seemed to be plenty of councelers there for the amount of children.

 

[dletz]

We went on the 4 day when my daughter was 3. Never been in day care, never been away from mom or dad much (and almost always with a family member). She had never been in a situation where we dropped her off like that. The first day we went to sign her up and she was so excited. Brought her back after dinner and she had so much fun. She did have an accident that first night. It was around 9:30 and we were just coming in to pick her up when we were paged. She almost made it to the potty, and was so upset. She was worried they wouldn't let her come back and play. No problems though. One day she wouldn't even leave the whole day.

I don't think they were at their capactiy for kids though, but I never felt that there were too many kids for them to handle. When we checked her in someone always said Hi and put a colored sticker on her writst band, told her their name and that she would be in her group.

Donna

 

[2kidsmom]

Although my DD is 6, we had experience with the 3-5 as my neice is 4. We went on the 5/1 Eastern. We checked the kids in on Saturday and granted it was a bit hectic to me. The counsellors didn't seem at all fazed, so I guess to them it was not. However, by that evening all had settled down. We had not a bit of trouble. As far as people saying they did not get paged, I do not understand that at all because I got paged for my DD. When I got there she was fine so I was going to leave her, but the CM told me that since they promised the kids that their parents would come as soon as they paged I needed to go talk to her. As it turns out she was fine, just wanted to page me! LOL

My neice is 4 and a bit of a handful. She had a great time, but they paged us alot for her. She wanted to stay, she wanted to leave, she wanted to stay.....

That is my personal experience.

Julie

 

[cepmom]

I have seen a few posts about the club/lab being crazy on the first night and next day....what is happening on board during those times that so many people are trying to drop their kids off at the same time? Just curious.

 

[2kidsmom]

The reason it is so crazy is that you have to fill out paperwork for your children and then a CM has to talk to you...ask and answer any questions they or you have. You get your pager and all that. So, you have all these parents signing all the paperwork at these little table designed for kids and then the kids are running around exploring. If you are not used to kids, it will seem wild. I am, so it was just a little chaotic for me, but my kids seemed to love it. Plus at that time, ALL the ages are together so it is a bit goofy (pardon the pun!)

Again the CM's did not seem fazed one bit, so I guess this is normal for them.

Julie